This morning, two dozen West Virginia scientists wrote to the CDC and EPA to urge the two agencies to give more freedom to their scientists to communicate with the press and public, especially during emergencies like the ongoing water contamination crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of West Virginians. Read More

UCS’s Francesca Grifo, who has advocated for strong scientific integrity standards within government since 2005, started today as the EPA’s scientific integrity officer. She is charged with implementing the EPA’s scientific integrity policy. It’s a big win for the agency, and will hopefully spark a renewed commitment to scientific integrity within the federal government. Read More

Rep. Lamar Smith, Chairman of the House Science Committee seems to be implying that unless the raw data from two major studies are made available to him and his colleagues, that the science used by the EPA in crafting some air quality regulations is secret. The Center for Science and Democracy at UCS was formed to advance the role of science and scientific evidence in public policy. So should we be supporting Chairman Smith’s demand, which he has backed up by a subpoena? Read More

In a letter released by Representative Doc Hastings (R-WA) and first reported in E&E Daily (subscription), and later by the Associated Press, the Interior Department Inspector General criticized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for failing to make restitution to whistleblowers who rightly exposed scientific integrity violations by their supervisors, and for failing to discipline the supervisors for their actions. To avoid further perceptions of impropriety, the FWS should respond quickly to the inspector general and detail how the agency is following up on the investigation. Read More

President Obama is expected to address the National Academy of Sciences on Monday to mark its 150th anniversary, according to an all-staff email that went to NAS employees yesterday. The speech will stream live at 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time at www.national-academies.org. Read More

Two years ago today, John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, sent a memorandum to government leaders regarding one of the president’s early priorities: creating strong scientific integrity standards within the executive branch in order to prevent political interference in science. Read More

In keeping with its commitment to improving its scientific integrity standards, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has updated its public communication and media policy—for the first time in two decades (to put that in perspective, that’s before the vast majority of us used the Internet). The policy is a marked improvement from the agency’s previous policy and succeeds by clarifying the roles and responsibilities of Service employees and public affairs officials in the communication of scientific information. But despite these improvements, the agency is not out of the woods quite yet. Read More

Should scientists at the Food and Drug Administration be able to have honest disputes with their colleagues about the science behind a drug or medical device approval decision? Or should they keep quiet about their concerns, preferring not to rock the boat? Read More

In an email yesterday to NASA employees (reproduced below), NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to scientific integrity, touting the scientific integrity policy NASA finalized in December. If only the scientists who work there could navigate through it. Read More